Crush
by HorcruxFinder
Summary: Fred and Katie have always been best friends, but lately they've become best friends who snog on a regular basis. He was perfectly fine with this arrangement until the unthinkable happened. Fred Weasley realized he had a crush on Katie Bell. Oneshot.


**A/N: So this might just be my favorite oneshot out of all the ones I've written. I never knew I was this deeply connected to Fred/Katie until I sat down to write their story. I hope I do them justice. Also, this is loosely based on the song Crush by David Archuleta. It's not really a songfic, but that song definitely inspired me while I was writing this. So if you haven't heard it, go take a listen.**

_This fic is dedicated to AnotherHPF. You're like my twin, you know that? My family always jokes that you're me on steroids. I might dislike shopping, but you hate it. We both have a distinct aversion to people and if you'd only been born 1 year and 364 days sooner, we'd have the same birthday. You leave me the most pointless, random, hilarious emails/texts/reviews which never fail to make my day. Half of my stories wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for you—you always put random plot bunnies in my head that have to go somewhere. You support me in this crazy adventure called fanfiction and for that I'm letting you have Fred, but just this once. Tomorrow we're back to fighting over him again, I'm sure. I love you, girl. This one's for you :)_

**::--::--::--::**

**CRUSH**

Although the snow was falling thick around him and Katie Bell's powder blue jacket made her nearly impossible to see, Fred Weasley's snowball struck its target. Of course, he wasn't able to see his projectile hit but he _was_ satisfied with the frustrated scream that emitted from Katie's mouth.

"Fred Weasley, I told you ten minutes ago that I'm done playing! I'm cold and I want to go find a hot cocoa," she complained loudly, trying to make sure that he understood her this time.

"Then why haven't you stopped throwing things at me yet, dear?" he laughed.

"Because every time I start to walk back to the castle, you throw another snowball at me!"

"Okay, okay, truce," he said, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. Katie smiled happily and made her way through the snow towards him.

"Well, thank Merlin," she said. "I thought I was going to freeze to death out here."

"I'd never let you freeze."

"On the contrary, Mr. Weasley, you were the cause of my freezing."

"Well _I'm_ perfectly warm," he bragged. "You'd think that Gryffindor's star Chaser could at least throw a snowball."

Angered by his comment, Katie quickly bent down, grabbed some snow, and sent a snowball straight at Fred's head before he could do anything to stop her. The snowball hit, leaving Fred breathless. "Holy shit, Katie! That was bloody cold!"

"I'm very well aware of that," she retorted. And suddenly snowballs were flying her way once more. Since they were standing at such a close proximity, it was impossible for Fred to miss, but Katie's aim was also much better at a closer distance.

Several minutes later, both of them were soaking wet and covered in unmelted snow.

"Katie, stop!" Fred yelled, but Katie didn't hear him and instead threw a handful of snow straight into his open mouth. Fred sputtered until the snow was out and then rushed forward to tackle Katie to the ground. "I said stop!"

Katie laughed from underneath him. "Well, sorry."

Fred looked down at her, her green eyes sparkling, and an unfamiliar feeling stirred deep inside him. She was beautiful and Fred couldn't help himself. He closed the distance between them and kissed her softly on the lips. She kissed back, but it wasn't the kind of kiss Fred was looking for.

They'd kissed before. Hell, they actually kissed quite a bit. They were best friends and they were comfortable enough with each other to do so without it ruining their relationship. Sometimes you just get the urge to kiss someone, and Katie seemed to always be there when Fred needed a partner. She didn't mind—urges go both ways.

"What was that for?" she asked when he finally pulled away. He just shrugged and picked himself off of her. He held his hand out and she took it so that he could lift her out of the snow.

As they walked back to the castle, Fred couldn't help but wonder what the answer to her question would have been. Why _did_ he kiss her? Their kissing had never been a spontaneous thing before—it was always planned with a location and time. There was nothing romantic about it. He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"Are you okay?" Katie asked, throwing him a wary glance.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered. "So, what are we going to do in Hogsmeade this weekend?"

"Oh, well, actually," Katie muttered. Fred looked over and found that her face was quickly becoming red. "I sort of have a date."

"Like a date date? With a guy?" Fred asked, taken aback by her announcement. Why would Katie want to go on a date when she had him? He treated her way better than any other guy would.

"Um, yeah," she answered, rubbing the back of her neck nervously.

"Well, with who?" Fred asked, his anger slowly starting to rise.

"Roger Davies. He asked me and—"

"Roger Davies! Katie, no!" Katie turned to him shocked.

"No?"

"No! You can't go on a date with Roger Davies! He treats girls like House Elves."

"Um, I can take care of myself, thanks," she said harshly.

"Katie, we _always_ go to Hogsmeade together."

"Roger fancies me, Fred, and for once I'd like to go to Hogsmeade with a date."

"Roger doesn't fancy you—he just wants a good shag!" Fred argued.

"Well, I'll be sure to give it to him, then," Katie responded, storming past Fred and into Gryffindor Tower. Fred climbed through the Portrait Hole after her, wondering what in the name of Merlin had just happened.

He disposed of his wet jacket and took a seat by the fire to warm up. What the hell was he doing? Katie and he rarely fought and when they did, it never bothered him this much. But the way she was making him feel…just the thought of her in Hogsmeade with the likes of Roger Davies was making his skin crawl.

_It's just brotherly protectiveness_, he thought bitterly. But he knew that that wasn't true. A brother wouldn't kiss a sister like he'd grown accustomed to kissing Katie. And a brother definitely wouldn't enjoy it.

Oh, God. Fred enjoyed kissing Katie Bell. He buried his head in his hands as the truth hit him. He had snogged a lot of girls since he came to Hogwarts—enough girls that his own mother had probably begun to hear rumors—but he couldn't distinguish individual instances. The girls all just sort of melded together into one body in his mind; they were all the same to him.

But not Katie.

He tried to tell himself that it was simply because he'd kissed Katie more than he'd kissed those other girls, but he couldn't even convince himself of that. There were several girls on his list that he'd snogged on a regular basis since fourth year. He hadn't been snogging Katie for nearly that long.

Through the process of elimination, Fred was left with the only possible explanation: He cared about Katie more than those other girls.

Well of course he did! She was his best friend, after all. But for some reason the words 'Katie' and 'friend' were not coexisting peacefully in his head. That title no longer seemed to fit her.

Fred Weasley fancied Katie Bell.

He took in a few deep breaths, sitting there on the hearth in front of the fire. How had he let this happen? He'd been perfectly content drifting through life just moving from girl to girl. What made Katie so different?

It didn't take Fred long to realize that his question didn't need answering. He'd answered it long ago. Because the same things that drew him to Katie as a friend, also drew him to her now.

She was gorgeous, sure, but it was an underestimated beauty. She didn't flaunt it like the girls Fred was used to. She made sure her skirts came down to the appropriate lengths and she didn't wear more makeup than she felt was necessary. She was smart, although she didn't know it. She was good at Quidditch. She was the best friend Fred had ever had. She was…Katie. There wasn't a word to describe her. She just was.

"Fred?" A voice asked, startling him from behind. He turned and was unsurprised to find Katie standing there with a blanket wrapped around her. Her hair was wet and it was obvious that she'd taken a shower to warm herself up.

"Hi, Kates," Fred smiled up at her.

"I'm so sorry, Fred," she apologized, taking a seat on the floor next to him. Without even thinking, Fred grabbed the end of her blanket and wrapped it around himself also.

"You have nothing to apologize for."

"Well, I'm going to tell Roger I can't go with him. I didn't know our Hogsmeade weekends meant so much to you," she said.

"Yeah, neither did I," Fred muttered. "But you don't have to do that, Katie. I don't want you to go with me when you want to go with him."

"I never wanted to go with him," she shrugged. "I was just flattered he asked. I never get asked out."

"Well, then," Fred smirked, throwing his arm around her shoulder. "Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me, Katie Bell?"

"You know that's not what I meant," she said, rolling her eyes. A large part of Fred wanted to argue with her—to tell her that he wasn't joking—but he knew that it was too soon. Whether Katie felt the same way about him or not (and he doubted she did), he wasn't going to rush into things. The last thing he would want to do is get Katie's hopes up and then realize that lust was the only thing he'd been feeling after all.

No, it was much better to wait.

"Yeah, I know," was all he said. Katie snuggled into his shoulder and they stayed like that for hours until Katie fell asleep. Fred, however, was unable to drift off and instead stayed awake, thinking about the girl next to him all night long.

**::--::--::--::**

The next week passed by slowly. Fred started skipping classes just so that he could find some time alone to think. And even the extra time did nothing to settle his spirit.

All he thought about was Katie—it was making him sick. He couldn't sleep, he could barely eat, and his sentences were no longer coming out coherently when she was in the room. She brushed it off as some side-effect of one of his experiments, but Fred was personally thankful for his speech deficiency. It at least meant that he didn't let anything stupid—like the truth—slip out.

He was sitting in the library during his Potions period, trying to avoid McGonagall, when the piece of parchment in front of him shone with fresh ink, words forming on the page as he watched. This was Katie and his method of communicating during classes since she was a year younger than him.

_How's Potions?_ She wrote.

Fred debated with himself for a minute on whether to respond. She was making him so nervous lately that it might just be best if he ignored her completely for a few days. As soon as the thought hit him, he shook his head to chase it away. What was he saying? No way was he going to give up Katie's friendship for a fickle crush—one that probably would disappear within days, as all of his other crushes had. He picked up his quill.

_I wouldn't know_, he wrote back. _I'm skiving off classes today._

He sat back and waited for her reply. It came within seconds.

_Why didn't you tell me that this morning? I would have skipped with you._

That's exactly why he didn't tell her.

_I didn't know this morning—just got the urge on the way to Transfig. George said McGonagall's pretty mad._

_She is_, Katie wrote. _I'm in her class now._ Fred laughed to himself, prideful of the fact that he had never once failed to anger McGonagall. _Are you skipping your next class too?_

_Yeah. It's only Herbology, _he wrote back.

_Well then I'm skipping too. Meet me in that broom cupboard on the 4__th__ floor—the one you showed me last week. I'm bored._

Silently cursing the mess he'd gotten himself into, Fred banged his head down on the table forcibly. Madam Pince looked over worriedly but upon seeing who it was, she turned back to her work.

What was he supposed to do now? Meet Katie on the fourth floor and snog her as if his feelings hadn't changed?

_Wait…that just might work,_ Fred thought to himself. Maybe it had just been a fluke last time. Maybe he wasn't in love with her at all, but instead just got turned on by nearly freezing to death. That would explain the spontaneous kiss.

His thoughts came to a crashing halt as he realized the word he'd just used. Love. Why had he thought that? He couldn't be in love with Katie—he wasn't even sure he liked her.

Well, that settled it then. He would meet Katie in the spacious broom cupboard on the fourth floor and he would snog her as if nothing had happened; because, in fact, he wasn't so sure anymore that anything _had_ happened. Maybe he'd just imagined the whole ordeal.

He turned back to the piece of parchment. _I'll be there._

The bell rang not five minutes later, but Fred waited until the halls were clear to sneak out of the library. McGonagall had a class, so there was little chance that she'd be roaming the halls in search for him. He couldn't avoid her forever, however. Although the House Elves were nice enough, he couldn't eat in the kitchens for more than one night in a row.

Trying not to think about his current predicament of avoiding his Head of House, he started for the fourth floor. It was surprisingly easy to forget McGonagall when the thought of Katie entered his mind. He found himself wondering how he'd ever convinced her to snog him in the first place. She'd probably had one too many Firewhiskeys that night. He couldn't think of any other reason why she would agree to this ridiculous scheme.

But then, why didn't she stop him? It was nearly six months since they'd first kissed. Not only that, but she was instigating it now! He had thoroughly corrupted her. Well…not thoroughly. Even being the sex maniac that he was, he had never seriously considered sleeping with Katie. Because while snogging was one thing, shagging was another. And he just wasn't going to ruin his relationship with his best friend by doing that.

Things change, however. If they were in a relationship—a real one—it would be different.

When he arrived at the designated broom cupboard, he paused briefly. He took a deep breath to prepare himself for whatever emotional upheaval he was about to put himself through, and opened the door.

Katie was sitting on an upturned bucket on the far side of the cupboard. She stood immediately as he entered and greeted him with a broad grin.

"I thought you were never gonna show," she said, putting her hands on her hips as if she could possibly get mad at him.

"Just trying to avoid McGonagall, dear," he smirked and took her in his arms, finding his actions more natural than he thought he'd be able to.

She smiled against his lips when they first made contact. He backed her to the wall gently, pushing Filch's cleaning supplies to the side with his foot. As he pressed ever closer to her, he couldn't help but notice a difference in the way his body reacted to hers. The feel of her tongue on his lips sent shivers down his back and although he wasn't expecting it, he found that it was quite enjoyable.

Their previous escapades had simply been a way for him to fill up his free time, but this was something new. He intensified the kiss, letting his lips travel to her neck. The moan that escaped her lips only egged him on and he bit the subtle skin there lightly, knowing that it was going to leave a mark but not really caring. The more people who knew she was his, the better.

His lips met hers again in a needy kiss and, almost subconsciously, he felt his hand begin to slide underneath her skirt. When she didn't recoil, he took that as permission to explore further. To his surprise, she was also adequately distracted, undoing the buttons on his shirt.

_What's going on?_ Fred asked himself. _What's changed?_

He shrugged out of his shirt just as the door to the broom cupboard burst open. Fred immediately sprang away from Katie.

"Ah ha! I got you now, Mr. Weasley!" Filch cried, pointing wildly at the couple. "This is the last time you'll use _my_ broom cupboards for your own personal entertainment. McGonagall's going to hear about this, she is." Slightly embarrassed, Fred only nodded. "Out!"

Katie walked out of the dark cupboard slowly. Fred picked his shirt up off the ground and followed her.

"This way," Filch instructed, leading them towards the Transfiguration classroom. Fred threw a glance Katie's way as he shrugged back into his shirt. She smiled slyly at him and rolled her eyes in Filch's direction. Fred laughed under his breath. Even though Katie's hair was wild and her lips were swollen, she was more gorgeous than Fred had ever seen her. Because he had done this to her.

They arrived at McGonagall's classroom several minutes later. Filch barged into the room without knocking, dragging Katie and Fred in with him. A group of students that included Fred's younger brother, Ron, looked up curiously from their assignments to see what the interruption was about. Several snickers ran through the room as the class took in Fred and Katie's disheveled attire.

"I have a couple of miscreants for you, Professor," Filch announced proudly. McGonagall looked as if she didn't know whether to be madder at Filch for interrupting her class or at Fred for evading capture for this long.

"I'll handle it from here, thank you," McGonagall said sternly.

"I _would_ like to suggest a punishment for them before I go, if it wouldn't be too much of a problem. They were desecrating my broom cupboard on the fourth floor, you see." The class giggled helplessly and Fred looked over at Katie to see her trying to contain her own laughter. Fred might have found the situation funny if it weren't for the fact that Ron was probably going to tell his Mum about this.

"That's enough, Argus!" McGonagall said angrily. "I can handle it from here, thank you." Filch exited the room with an aggravated huff and walked away mumbling something about the 'lack of respect' he received. "You two," she said harshly. "My office. Now. I'll be with you after class." Eager to be out of her sight, the two followed her instructions.

When they entered her office, Katie sat down in a chair in front of McGonagall's desk while Fred leaned against a side wall peacefully, just staring at her.

"What?" she asked with a laugh. Fred's first reaction was to only shrug nonchalantly, but then he thought about it. He really had nothing to lose after all. This feeling obviously wasn't going to go away and if their previous escapade had been any indication…well, he thought he could handle a relationship if it came with snogging like that on a daily basis.

"Katie, I think I fancy you," he said simply.

"Well, I know that," she said with a laugh.

"You do?" he asked, making his way over to sit in the chair next to her.

"I've just been waiting on you to realize it, you idiot. It took you long enough, by the way."

"Well, how long have I fancied you then?" he asked, seeming to have found the answers to all of the questions that had plagued him for the past week.

"Oh, I reckon for about a year now."

"A year?" he choked. "That's impossible."

"Not really," she laughed. "A year ago was the first time you ditched George to go to Hogsmeade with me. All of the signs have been there."

"But I didn't even snog you until—"

"Six months ago, yeah. And you didn't do it just because you wanted to until last weekend."

"That's what made me think that I fancied you," he said, his head starting to spin. Was it possible that he'd liked Katie for that long and hadn't even realized it? He'd heard his sister say that guys were thick, but he had never believed it to be true.

"Well, do you still only _think_ you fancy me or do you know?" she asked, a smile making its way onto her face.

"It depends," he said after a second.

"On what?"

"Do _you _fancy me?"

"Of course I do, Fred. Since the day I met you." Her comment took him by surprise, and the first thing he could think to do in response was to kiss her. Which he did. Right there in Professor McGonagall's armchair.

And when the Professor walked in nearly ten minutes later, Katie was in Fred's lap and they were snogging wildly. McGonagall yelled at them for Lord knows how long, but she never told Katie to get off of Fred's lap. So they just sat there, slightly stunned, as their Professor gave them detention for Saturday. It was a Hogsmeade weekend and that should be a punishment equal to nearly two weeks worth of detention.

They didn't argue with her reasoning. But then again, they'd be serving their detentions together and nothing else seemed to matter much.

**::--::--::--::**

**=] Review, please?**


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